


Falling Softly, Softly Falling

by missmirrorball



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn, me just filling in the blanks with my own headcanon, slightly AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29813358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmirrorball/pseuds/missmirrorball
Summary: They brave the darkness together. And when the building is cleared and the unsub is in custody, there is still that leftover darkness. And adrenaline. They are both hyperaware of its inevitability — once it starts, why fight the instinct? Why deny their desires, the mutual impetus to be close, when nothing in their lives has ever been promised and good things never last?Beginning with Hotch working for Ambassador Prentiss and moving forward from there. I'm definitely adding in a lot of my own plot points and headcanon. The rating may change (this is a slow burn after all), but Hotchniss deserves to be real, so fret not.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Emily Prentiss
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9





	Falling Softly, Softly Falling

**Author's Note:**

> So I started watching Criminal Minds during quarantine and it has quickly become one of my favorite comfort shows. I 100% believe that Hotchniss was happening behind the scenes, and I've been occasionally filling in the blanks as I rewatch the series. I've been working on this off and on for the last couple of months, but it's nowhere near finished and I also have to write a dissertation, so I'm not sure what the upload schedule will be like. There's also quite a bit of my own headcanon here, but probably nothing too outlandish. 
> 
> If you're reading this, thank you! And let me know your thoughts if you're up to it!

He already knew his fiancée would be supportive. Haley clapped her hands and reached across the dining room table to wrap her arms around his neck. Aaron returned the embrace and smiled into her shoulder. 

"I wasn't sure you would be happy about this," Aaron admitted. Haley sat back in her seat and brought a glass of white wine to her lips. 

"I know how much you want this, Aaron," Haley replied. "And I knew you could do it." 

"I'm not technically an agent, yet," Aaron clarified. Haley shrugged and waved away his concerns. 

"You have time for that!" she encouraged. 

"I know," Aaron nodded. “Twenty-six is still young and, I mean, only the most dedicated get special agent status by twenty-three, right?” 

Haley smiled and put down her glass. They sat in happy silence for a brief moment before Aaron felt like he could relax his stance and dig into his meal. If he saw a flash of apprehension in Haley's bright expression, he told himself it was to be expected. He put in three years as a prosecutor and now he was leaving it all behind to pursue a career at the FBI. 

"So what does it mean, exactly?" Haley took another swig of her wine. "Security clearances?"

"It's a civil servant position," Aaron clarified. "I'll be working under an ambassador for the US, working with a team to clear the backgrounds of whoever meets with her..." He waved his fork around as he tried to articulate his job duties. "There's probably a lot more to it, but I won't really know until I start."

"It's not dangerous, is it?" Worry flashed across her features again, but she was quick to disguise it. 

"No," Aaron assured her. "It's basically an office job." 

Haley let out a sigh of relief and reached for his hand. He intertwined their fingers as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. He was grateful that she seemed proud of him. Aaron still operated under the assumption that he had to put in the work, prove himself capable before he could be rewarded with support. If his father were still alive, Aaron doubted he would be proud of his eldest son. There were always conditions and he had to train himself to dismiss the urge to overanalyze his fiancee’s micro-expressions. Haley was not like his parents — she loved him unconditionally.

And they were getting married soon. All things considered, Aaron Hotchner was living the life he always longed for. 

* * *

The name Elizabeth Prentiss had been exchanged in nearly every conversation Aaron had at work. It was impossible to escape the ambassador's presence, even though Aaron had yet to meet her. He was beginning to think that he never would, until the end of his second week. A supervisor stopped him in the hall of the US Department of State building and handed him a post-it with instructions to a private runway at Dulles.

"The ambassador's flight back to DC was delayed and her usual arrangement has another thing, so you're gonna have to pick her up and drive her back into Arlington."

"Okay." Aaron took the note and observed the neat pencil instructions for a brief moment.

"Wait," he called after the supervisor. The older man turned around and gave him a questioning look. "What time is her flight coming in?" The supervisor shrugged. 

"10, I think?" 

"You think?" Aaron felt his body wash over with nerves. He couldn't be late to pick up the ambassador that he worked for, especially when it was his first time meeting her.

"Yeah, pretty sure it’s 10." Aaron watched as the supervisor spun on his heel and walked away. He sighed and folded the post-it note in half before tucking it into his jacket pocket. It was almost the end of his workday, but he still had a few Foreign Affairs couriers to meet with before he could leave. On his way to the appointed conference room, he stopped by a reception desk to dial his home number.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me." He could hear chopping in the background and he grimaced slightly. "Look, I've been told to pick the ambassador up from the airport tonight."

"Tonight?" The chopping stopped and Aaron fidgeted with the files he had placed down on the counter in front of him. 

"Yeah, her flight is coming in around 10," he explained. "And I have a few more meetings, so I think I'm going to catch up with work here and then head to Dulles."

"You won't be home for dinner?" Haley sounded only marginally disappointed, but Aaron still hated to hear it. 

"No, I'm sorry." The receptionist on the other side of the counter looked up before quickly darting her eyes away when they made eye contact.

"It's alright, sweetie," she said. He could hear the forced smile on her face. "Are you nervous?" 

"No, it'll be fine," he said. He could tell the receptionist was listening and he didn't feel like having an eavesdropper know that he was nervous to meet the ambassador they all worked for. Word could get around and Aaron wouldn’t want to come off as anything less than capable.

As he hung up, he thanked the receptionist and returned to his previous task. He had no idea what a Foreign Affairs courier was, but he figured the best way to find out would be to meet with them.

The hallways of the DOS building were packed with employees and government officials. Two weeks into his new position and every day still felt like the first. The buildings themselves were like mazes and he still hadn’t received his official post within the team, so Aaron found himself drifting between various tasks, handed down to him by supervisors and senior staff who saw him as the new gofer and nothing more.

This was most likely how he ended up with this last-minute errand. At least, for his more seasoned coworkers, it would be an errand. For him, it was an opportunity to make a memorable first impression. He reached into his pocket to make sure the post-it was still there, his stomach turning with nerves. Word around the office was that Ambassador Prentiss was demanding and intimidating, not likely to pick favorites, but if she didn’t like you then you were sure to know about it. Aaron couldn’t shoot himself in the foot this early in his career by making a bad first impression with his boss, so instead of focusing on meetings and paperwork, Aaron whittled away the rest of his workday making sure he knew exactly where to be and how to be there.

He would have never guessed, for instance, that he would need to use one of the DSS-issued Suburbans to pick up a government official. Thankfully, a kind woman in Foreign Affairs had overheard somewhere that the new guy was going to the airport later. She caught him by the copier and made sure he knew who to talk to about who was in charge of issuing SUVs and how he could get clearance for when he arrived at the airport. Aaron thanked her appropriately, but privately he was so relieved that he felt like he might even be able to eat something before he had to leave.

 _Here I was thinking I could just roll onto a private runway in my Corolla,_ he chastised himself.

By 7:30, Aaron found himself in a large, black SUV with tinted windows and bulletproof siding. The security guard at the gate had laughed at him for being so early, but Aaron ignored him and drove through the storm gates and onto the runway to wait for the ambassador’s jet.

He was too nervous to do anything other than sit and stare out at the quickly darkening sky. Aaron watched as the lights along the Dulles tarmac grew brighter, the runways flashing in indistinguishable criss-cross patterns. It seemed like a miracle each time a place landed within the boundaries of a row of blinking indicators. As the planes boarded and disembarked, he thought passively of all the lives on board these planes and where they might be going, or coming from.

Before he knew it, it was 9:48 and one of the air traffic controllers was tapping lightly on the driver seat’s tinted window. He rolled the window down.

“The jet’s coming in, just so you know.”

“Thanks.” Aaron turned forward, rolling the window back up, then flipped the visor down and adjusted his tie, making sure he looked presentable and professional. He looked the same as he did all day, but it made him feel better to do something with his hands.

He wasn’t sure if he should get out of the car as the ambassador was disembarking or if he should already be outside and waiting. He opted for the second choice and stood awkwardly by the SUV while the jet made its way down the runway. If the traffic controllers and security guards noticed his behavior as out of place or overly professional, they didn’t show it.

Instead, they did their jobs. After over two hours of waiting anxiously, now the jet was unfolding a staircase in front of him.

The cabin lights flicked on and Aaron saw through the porthole windows two women collecting their things and making their way to the exit. He couldn’t tell which one was the ambassador from his vantage point, but as soon as she appeared on the staircase, he recognized the ambassador from the descriptions of her back at the office.

She was thin but surprisingly tall. Not too tall, maybe 5’8”. Her hair was perfectly coiffed into a sensible hairstyle, a little outdated, but professional. She wore heels and a tailored suit, even on a long transatlantic flight. From the way she pulled her coat on, it looked almost like she hadn’t taken her shoes off for the entire flight. Like she had sat on an hours-long flight in the same way she would sit through a meeting.

Behind her, however, was a woman closer to his own age, dressed in a considerably less professional style: an oversized, Yale crewneck sweater, black leggings, running shoes. Her black hair was twisted into a messy bun at the back of her head, secured by one of those jaw clips that Haley said gave her a headache. She was tugging a backpack onto one of her shoulders, holding a handful of books to her chest, and talking very animatedly.

As they got off the jet and the engines died down to a quiet whir, Aaron began to hear snippets of their conversation. One of the air traffic controllers was pushing their luggage toward the SUV and Aaron busied himself in opening the trunk and helping with loading in their suitcases and duffel bags.

“Why are you picking this fight right now?” It was the ambassador’s voice. She sounded exhausted and uninterested in having a conversation with (who Aaron assumed) was her daughter. Her daughter, on the other hand, was not letting up.

After shutting the trunk, Aaron hurried to the back door in time for the ambassador and her daughter to climb into the SUVs back seat.

“Madam Ambassador,” he greeted politely. The ambassador flashed him a smile as her daughter climbed in first, scooting to the other side. Then the ambassador sat and Aaron found himself shutting the door and feeling miraculously less nervous. It might have helped that the ambassador he had been so anxious to meet was busy being human, arguing with her daughter as any other mother would.

When Aaron got into the driver seat, the ambassador’s daughter was now talking.

“I’m not trying to fight with you, mother,” she sighed. “I’m trying to share my life with you!”

“I get that, Emily,” said the ambassador back to her. “I really do.”

“Then why are you acting so disappointed?” Emily pulled at her seatbelt, securing it with an exasperated huff. The ambassador put her seatbelt on with a poise that Aaron thought himself ridiculous for noticing.

“I’m not going to have this conversation here, Emily.”

“Fine.”

Aaron pulled out of the runway and passed through the same storm gate with a nod to the security guard. He straightened up in his seat as he followed the signs back onto the highway toward Arlington.

“Ma’am.” He cleared his throat quietly. “I was told to take you back to the DOS building, is that alright?”

From his seat, he could see both women in his rearview mirror. He tried to make eye contact with the ambassador, but she was looking down at her hands.

“Are you new?” The ambassador looked up and, as soon as their eyes met, Aaron quickly looked away.

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered.

“I didn’t catch your name earlier.”

“Hotchner, ma’am. Aaron Hotchner.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-six, ma’am.” Aaron merged onto the highway.

“Are you an agent?” This was Emily’s question. She was looking in the mirror now, making eye contact with him. Aaron tried to keep his attention on the road, but it was empty this time of night and he found it easy to match her gaze. As they passed under streetlights, he noticed that her eyes were dark.

“Not yet,” he answered her. “I have to take the training still.

“Emily, I told you, I don’t want to keep having this conversation.”

“You know I’m old enough to make my own decisions, right?”

“Oh, I’m well aware of that.” The ambassador rolled her eyes and Aaron found himself fully curious to know what they were talking about. “Just get through grad school and then you can worry about what you do after that.”

“Obviously I’ll get through grad school,” Emily quipped.

“Graduate first, and then I’ll have a conversation with you about it.”

The two settled into a tense silence after that, with Emily turning her gaze out the window. Aaron felt it would be inappropriate to ask the question again of where the ambassador wanted to go, so he just made his way back toward Arlington.

Eventually, the ambassador seemed to remember his earlier question. “Will you take us home?”

“Of course, ma’am,” Aaron answered. “Where is home?”

The ambassador gave him the address, relying on him to know the area, he guessed. Luckily, he did, and he found his way easily enough. He navigated through residential neighborhoods made up of impressively large and stately homes, all while ambassador Prentiss and her daughter remained silent and turned away from each other in their seats behind him. 

Their house was one of those Neo-classical builds from the 1700s, nestled on a tree-lined street in Alexandria with a pillared portico and a blue door. When he saw the number plate on the gate, he pulled in and up the cobblestoned driveway. Emily opened the door before he could even shift into park, slamming the door behind her and making her way past a guard coming out to meet them. The guard stepped aside as Emily hurried up the walkway and then made his way to the Suburban to help with the luggage.

Aaron got out to open the back door. Ambassador Prentiss met him with an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry for my daughter,” she said easily. “Her workload at school has been a tad overwhelming, I’m afraid.”

“Understandable,” Aaron nodded. He joined their security guard in pulling luggage out of the trunk and carrying it up the walkway. The ambassador quickly disappeared into another room, but the guard gave him an appreciative nod and led him back out the front door.

As he made his way back down the walkway, he felt an inexplicable compulsion to look back. He turned to look up at the ambassador’s large home, scanning up the stone facade overgrown with ivy to the only lit-up window on the second floor.

Emily’s hair was down now, fanning across her shoulders. She moved back and forth in front of the window before turning around and pushing it open. If she only looked down, she would see him staring up at her. He hoped the oak tree blocking her window from the quiet, residential street would also obscure him. Even if it didn’t, Emily was clearly in her own world. The light from her bedroom spilled out onto the oak leaves that brushed against the window and as quickly as Emily was there to open the window, she was just as quickly gone from view.

The neighborhood was quiet, being set apart from any city noise. It was early enough in September that it was still warm, the crickets still singing even this late into the night. He came back to himself to check his watch: 11:11. On any other night, he and Haley would be asleep by now. But with him working late, Haley was sure to still be up, waiting for him.

He made his way back into Arlington to drop off the SUV and from there he drove his usual way home from work. It was almost midnight by the time he pulled into his apartment garage. On the second floor, the lights were off, but he guessed that Haley would be awake watching TV. He looked up at it in much the same way he looked up at Emily’s window, realizing how inappropriate it would have been if she had looked down and seen him standing there. He had to be more careful, not only because he was happily engaged and far from being in a position to admire other women, but because the ambassador was his boss and he wanted her to see him as dependable and trustworthy.

Aaron quietly opened the front door and took his shoes off in the dark entryway. Haley greeted him by calling out from their bedroom down the hall. He yanked off his tie and walked into their room, collapsing onto the bed next to her. She was already in her pajamas, tucked into their bed, with _Dateline on NBC_ on the TV in front of the bed. Aaron usually complained about having the TV in the bedroom, but Haley liked to fall asleep with it on. As soon as Aaron got into the covers with her, Haley was quick to fall asleep, curled into his side. Usually, he turned the TV off as soon as she dropped off to sleep, but he found that he was still wide awake, going over what he learned from his brief interactions with the ambassador and her daughter. 

He watched the rest of _Dateline_ , holding Haley close. And even though he solved the case almost halfway through the program, he still enjoyed watching the reveal.

* * *

The next day, Aaron was stopped in the hallway on his way into another training module. It was the same supervisor that gave him the post-it the day before. He was pretty sure his name was Ed.

Ed clapped him on the back and gave him a knowing smile. “Heard you finally met the ambassador last night.”

“Yeah,” Aaron confirmed.

“If I would have known, I woulda done it myself, you know.”

“Known what?”

“That her daughter was with her,” said Ed. “All the guys here in the office are like dogs around her.”

Aaron frowned, but Ed didn’t seem to notice or care. “I didn’t really get a chance to meet her,” he shrugged. “They were having kind of an important conversation.”

“Yeah, well…” Ed gave Aaron a pointed look. “You still got a good look at her, though, right?”

“I, uh —,” Aaron laughed nervously. “I’m engaged, so I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“Alright, alright,” Ed relented. He put his hands up in surrender and then started to walk away. “All I’m saying is it’s a treat when she’s around if you know what I mean.”

Aaron didn’t quite know what he meant, but he nodded anyway. He guessed that Ed only meant that she was pretty — which she was — but he hated to participate in boys club behavior regardless. He wondered if Ed cared that she went to Yale or if he was just interested in getting with an ambassador’s attractive daughter.

* * *

It was another year and some months later before Aaron would run into Emily Prentiss again. He expected he would eventually, with his new duties involving clearing the ambassador’s house of threats or suspicious activity, but Emily made it a point to stay on campus as much as she could.

The ambassador seemed to like him, but even still her presence was intimidating and occasionally nerve-wracking. Most of the time, the ambassador was posted overseas while the empty house continued to be maintained by a regular rotation of cleaners and gardeners. Even so, the house had to be cleared every day and Aaron was almost always on rotation to sweep the house and surrounding area for anything out of place.

He was also called in whenever an alarm went off unexpectedly in the house. Guards were always posted there, but when an alarm went off, he was needed to clear the area. Now that he had had his FBI training, he was issued agent status and as an agent, he had a lot more tools at his disposal to secure a perimeter.

It was around four in the morning, a year and some months later, when a call came in. Aaron reached for the bedside table for the phone and answered with his usual greeting.

“Agent Hotchner.”

Haley stirred in the bed beside him. She groaned as he swung his legs out from under the covers, reaching for a discarded button-down on the floor.

“I’ve been called in,” he whispered to his wife. Haley just rolled over and went back to sleep, which Aaron was grateful for.

* * *

The ambassador’s house was still as stately and impressive as it was the first night he saw it. He still found himself looking up at that same second-story bedroom window, but he told himself it was simply a small ritual he picked up from that first night. He found himself looking up, as he usually did, on his way to the front door.

In the entryway, Aaron was greeted by one of the newer security guards. He was obnoxiously thorough and anxious to do his job correctly, which Aaron would appreciate if it didn’t mean frequent calls about any and every disturbance that the man came across. It was difficult to chastise him for erring on the side of caution, but he was quickly losing patience as the calls became less and less legitimate.

“Saul,” Aaron greeted.

“Hey, Hotchner,” Saul started. “Look, I’m sorry to have to call you, but I caught a girl trying to break in through the back door. She says she lives here, but I don’t recognize her.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s in the kitchen, she seems pretty disheveled…” Saul kept at Aaron’s heels as he walked through the dining room and into the kitchen. “Like she might be on drugs or something, you know?”

“Did you ask her name?”

Saul sighed and seemed to hesitate. “Yeah, she said her name was Emily.”

Aaron walked through the kitchen to see Emily Prentiss perched on a barstool with a bowl of cereal in her hands.

“Saul,” Aaron turned to the guard. “This is the ambassador’s daughter.”

“Told you,” Emily said, rolling her eyes.

“I — ” Saul looked between Aaron and Emily, his face growing red. “She told me, but she was also breaking in through the back door. Nobody told me she was coming home and I’ve never seen her!”

“Saul, it’s fine, I’ve got it from here.” Aaron gave him a sympathetic look and the guard apologized to Emily. Then he turned to get back to his post, leaving Aaron and Emily alone in the dimly lit kitchen.

Emily chewed on her cereal carefully, sitting quietly in wait for Aaron to say something.

“I’m Aaron Hotchner,” he introduced himself.

“I remember you,” she said. It was when she looked up that Aaron realized why Saul called him. She wasn’t on drugs, but she did look notably disheveled. Her eyes were smudged with mascara and it looked like her lipstick had been completely rubbed off, leaving her lips red and puffy. Aaron cocked his head slightly, observing her.

“Are you alright?”

Emily let out a breath through her mouth and bit down on her lip. She shook her head.

“Not really,” she laughed. “But I’ll be fine.”

Aaron shifted his stance, moving his weight from one foot to the other. He looked around the room aimlessly, trying to figure out what to say.

“Is there anything I can do?” he tried.

Emily shook her head again. “I just need to sleep it off.”

“Can I ask why you’re here?” Aaron slipped his hands into his pockets. “Did anyone else come with you?”

“No,” said Emily. “No one else came with me.”

She ate the last of her cereal, then got up to wash the bowl and spoon in the sink. “As to why I’m here…” she started. “I didn’t want anyone to bother me on campus.”

“Why not?”

“Do I have to tell you that?”

“I guess not.”

Emily cracked a small smile and sighed again. “Am I allowed to go to my room now?”

Aaron nodded and Emily gave him a small nod back in thanks. Once she was upstairs, Aaron decided to do a cautionary sweep of the house and the backyard. Just because no-one came along with Emily didn’t mean someone didn’t follow her.

By the time he cleared the area, the birds were up and singing in the trees. Looking through the house, Aaron had skipped Emily’s room for propriety’s sake, but now it was the only room left to clear. He should have cleared it while she was still awake so that she didn’t have to be in the room while he checked all the usual hiding spots, but the thought hadn't occurred to him then.

When he quietly pushed her bedroom door open, he found that she was fast asleep in her queen-sized bed. He walked past her desk to look in her closet, then moved to the ensuite where he checked the shower and then behind the door. 

Everything looked normal, so Aaron made his way back out, thankful that Emily was still asleep. He opened the door but before he could slip out, he heard Emily’s voice from her bed. He turned around and saw her sat up against her bed's wrought-iron headboard.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

“Used to it,” she replied. He relaxed a little. “Can I ask a question?”

He nodded, but it was dark in her room so he answered. “Yes,” he said.

“You’re an agent now, right?”

“I am,” he confirmed.

“Do you like it?”

He tried to make out her features in the dark, but all he could see was the contrast of her dark hair against her bare, pale arms. She was hugging her knees to her chest and she looked younger than he knew she was. He learned from the ambassador that Emily was three years younger than him and that she was getting her MS at Yale in Linguistics and wanted to work in child advocacy. Like her mother, she could speak multiple languages and was slotted to graduate Summa Cum Laude at the end of the year.

All things considered, she was incredibly accomplished. And well-liked, as far as he knew. Not to mention pretty, which he could admit to objectively. But as he stood in her doorway, her room illuminated with the faint, blue light of dawn, Emily Prentiss looked vulnerable and a little sad. He thought of her smudged makeup and wondered, for the first time since he found her in the kitchen, why she was here. But it wasn't his place to ask, so he simply answered her question.

“I love it,” he answered honestly. “It’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”

“Yeah,” she replied. “Yeah.” 

He considered her response as they watched each other in the dark, then Aaron cleared his throat and turned toward the door.

“Sorry for waking you,” he said over his shoulder. He saw her shrug then slide back under her covers. Aaron moved into the hall, shutting her bedroom door behind him as quietly as he could.

* * *

Saul was waiting for him at the bottom of the front staircase, looking apologetic and nervous.

“I’m really sorry, Hotchner,” he began to say. Aaron waved him off.

“It’s fine, Saul,” he reiterated. “Now you know what she looks like, so next time you catch her sneaking in, you don’t have to call me.”

Saul rubbed the back of his neck, his cheeks turning pink in embarrassment. Aaron gave him a weak pat on the back and left through the front door. Before he got to his Suburban, he noticed another guard walking toward him, probably to relieve Saul for the morning shift. By the time he got into his car, the guard had sauntered up to the driver's side window. Aaron rolled it down to greet him, but the other guard was quick to let him know that the ambassador was heading back to DC.

“When?” Aaron asked.

“I don’t know,” the guard shrugged. “I stopped by the office and heard it from some of the secretaries.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” said Aaron.

By the time he got back to his apartment, it was already close to six, which meant he barely had time to shower and change for the day.

Haley was still asleep when he got back, but she was awake and making herself coffee when he came into the kitchen after his shower.

“So what was the emergency?” she asked casually.

“Oh, it was the daughter,” he shrugged. “Saul caught her breaking in through the back door.”

“She doesn’t have a key?”

“I guess not,” Aaron answered. “I think she was a little drunk, to be honest.”

“How did he not know who she was, though?”

Aaron shrugged, pulling the knot of his tie up to his neck and adjusting it. “He’s still new.”

“Was that the first time you ever met her?” Haley walked around the kitchen island with her coffee held against her chest. He smiled down at her as she moved closer to him.

“No, I met her once before,” Aaron answered.

“I didn’t know that,” said Haley.

“The first time I picked up the ambassador at the airport,” said Aaron, sure he told her about that night. “Emily was with her.”

“That’s the daughter’s name?”

“Yeah,” said Aaron. Haley tilted her head up and he bent down to meet her lips with his own. She smiled into the kiss as he dropped his hands from his tie to pull her closer to him by her hips. “I feel like I’ve mentioned her before.”

Haley pulled away to take another sip of her coffee, turning around to continue making herself a bowl of cereal. Aaron felt a sensation of deja-vu as he watched his wife reach for the drying rack by their sink for a bowl and spoon. Two women on the same morning eating cereal — nothing out of the ordinary about that, but Aaron was always one for noticing patterns.

“Maybe you have,” said Haley casually. “Are you going in early?”

“It’s 6:45,” he said, looking at his watch just to make sure.

“Technically, you start at 8,” she reminded him. A small point of contention between them was quickly becoming the increasingly unconventional hours Aaron held as he took on more responsibilities at work.

“The ambassador might be on her way back today,” said Aaron as an explanation.

“I thought she wasn’t due back for a few more months.”

“She’s not, but I heard this morning that she might be anyway,” Aaron explained. “I thought I’d get some stuff done in the morning in case she _is_ on her way.”

Aaron kissed her again over the island counter then headed out.

* * *

It quickly became clear that the ambassador was, indeed, on her way into DC. No one seemed to know why, though, and the hallways and reception desks were buzzing with theories and rumors. Ambassador Prentiss was not one for surprise announcements and, when she was posted somewhere, she made it a point to stay there until she was called to come to back.

There was one thing that Aaron knew that no one else seemed to know, and that was that Emily was back in town. As Aaron declined to participate in speculations among his co-workers, his own speculations ran through his mind. _Was she coming back because something was wrong with Emily?_

It was far from his place to make guesses or to even make it his business to know, but when the opportunity arose to fill in and pick the ambassador up from Dulles, Aaron surprised himself by jumping at the chance.

So, once again, Aaron found himself in a black SUV, pulling through the storm gates of a runway at Dulles. This time around, he knew the security guard and he even knew the air traffic controller. Like every other aspect of the job, time and practice made him much more comfortable and he laughed at himself for ever being nervous to fill in for this particular task.

When the jet pulled in and the staircase unfolded, Aaron was surprised to see the ambassador had traveled alone. The first time he picked her up had been an anomaly, he learned later. Every other time, the ambassador arrived with a team of people. She almost always had her assistant with her, for instance. Not to mention her regular staff and other constituents.

This time, the ambassador was quick to make her way over to where Aaron was waiting for her.

“Agent Hotchner, I was hoping it would be you,” she said.

“Ma’am?”

“Let’s get in and I’ll tell you what I’m looking for from you.”

Aaron shut the trunk as the ambassador’s luggage was loaded in, then shut the back door and got into the driver’s seat. As soon as he turned the key in the ignition, the ambassador was leaning forward and making direct eye contact with him in the rearview mirror.

His memory from that first night flashed in his mind, but he was too curious and eager for the ambassador’s confidence, that he pushed the memory aside.

“I was told you were called when my daughter broke into the house this morning,” she started. Aaron nodded.

“I was, ma’am,” he confirmed.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Anger, maybe. Or disappointment. Elizabeth Prentiss was always expressing some sort of exasperation in regards to her daughter, which Aaron saw as unfair, considering Emily’s multiple accomplishments and impressive motivation. It was always to do with Emily's apparent penchant for partying or her choice of friends. The ambassador would never divulge in details, but if the gossip around the office and among guards was anything to go by, he could see why the ambassador worried about her daughter. He just wasn’t sure if what she did was illicit enough to warrant disappointment, especially when she was doing so well regardless.

Aaron would never openly side with the ambassador’s daughter, though. He works for Elizabeth Prentiss and he barely knew her daughter. So while Aaron expected some shade of worry or anger from the ambassador, he certainly wasn’t expecting an open display of vulnerability from his boss.

Ambassador Prentiss leaned her head back on the headrest and let out a sob. If Aaron hadn’t been looking back at her, he might have mistaken the noise for a groan or even a loud yawn. But the ambassador looked wrecked. He straightened his spine and pulled his gaze back onto the road. There was a moment of quiet before Aaron looked up again and saw that the ambassador had more or less composed herself.

“I don’t know what else to do,” she said, the exhaustion plain on her face as she admitted this to him. Aaron cleared his throat and tried to focus on the traffic bunching up on the highway, maneuvering carefully towards the carpool lane.

“I think she forgot her key,” said Aaron in Emily’s defense. “I figured she got into a fight with someone at a party and came back home, a little drunk and without her keys.”

“She called me,” the ambassador said. “And my daughter _never_ calls me.”

“Did something happen?”

The ambassador sat quietly for a moment as she mulled something over in her head. “I can trust you, right?”

“Of course,” Aaron assured her. “You don’t have to tell me anything, but if it helps you, I won’t repeat anything you say to me now.”

The ambassador nodded, but still seemed hesitant. “You can’t repeat this,” she stated. “Not even to your family, or your wife.”

Aaron quickly nodded. “Understood.” He didn’t want to linger on how easy it was for him to agree to keep things from Haley. It was worth it for the way the ambassador seemed to relax behind him.

Traffic was quickly coming to a standstill, even in the carpool lane. Aaron kept his gaze on the stop and go of the cars in front of him as the ambassador began to explain her real worry to him.

“You already know this,” she began, “but I’m often posted in countries where relations are volatile and extremely unpredictable, at best. Violence is often a very plausible means of settling arguments between diplomats and opposing forces. When Emily was little, I was posted in Afghanistan. Emily must have been around six when an American journalist was kidnapped and being held hostage by a band of extremists. We were in the middle of those hostage negotiations, trying to trade information for this journalist’s freedom, but the information was not entirely ours to give.”

Aaron rounded his shoulders as the ambassador took a breath in through her mouth — a habit her daughter must have picked up from her.

“Anyway,” the ambassador continued. “Separate from that situation, there were members of a terrorist group who wanted the US to pull military forces out of a site of some religious importance. The thing was, the site was not actually all that important to them. It was a complicated situation, but in short, this group of domestic terrorists kidnapped my daughter and held her hostage for eight days.”

Aaron’s eyes snapped up to the rearview mirror. The ambassador had her mouth covered by one of her hands, her eyes looking everywhere but at him. He could tell just from her stance that remembering the event was incredibly difficult for her. Up ahead, he could see the traffic thinning out, but he almost didn’t mind the traffic, if it meant the ambassador would continue to share this story with him.

“Please don’t tell Emily that I told you this,” the ambassador restated. 

“I won’t tell anyone, ma’am.” He heard her sigh again.

“It was terrible,” she said. He could tell she was purposefully skipping over particular details. “She was so little and scared and the situation was chaotic and non-sensible. It felt like there was nothing I could do. None of our usual tactics were working and it quickly became clear that this wasn’t a situation of wanting information or getting something out of it. It was run by one man who seemed hellbent on torturing us. He had little to no regard for Emily’s safety or well-being and he changed his mind so often that it was difficult to know if we were making any progress at all. We promised him we would pull out of the religious site, but he didn’t really care about that. We offered money, information, time with government officials that could grant him his demands, but he was only interested in exerting control over us.”

“Sounds like a psychopath,” Aaron interjected.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “It did feel like that.”

“I mean, it sounds like the man could be diagnosed as a psychopath, much like a serial killer.” Aaron immediately regretted making this suggestion, because the ambassador quickly went quiet and seemed to retreat into herself. He was about to apologize, but the ambassador started to talk again.

“Emily wants to be in the FBI,” she said. “But she doesn’t understand how dangerous it would be. And I don’t understand why, after all that, she would want to be in the middle of these awful situations.”

“What exactly does she want to do in the FBI?” Aaron asked. Emily’s voice from that morning came to mind; how she asked if he liked being an agent.

“I don’t know,” the ambassador waved a hand. “Child advocacy, terrorism…does it matter? I just don’t understand it and I feel like she’s headed in a dangerous direction.”

The traffic cleared and Aaron made his way over to take the exit toward Alexandria, driving the familiar way back to the ambassador’s house. For security’s sake, he had to switch up his route to her house, in case anyone followed him. On this occasion, he thought it best to go the fastest route, even though he had taken that route once already this week. If Emily was going through something and needed to talk to her mother, Aaron didn’t want to delay that from happening.

“What was she like last night?” The ambassador almost sounded nervous as the city slowly turned into residential neighborhoods.

“I could tell she had been crying,” he answered honestly. “But other than that, I would have thought she just had a bad night. Maybe got into a fight with a friend or drank too much?”

“When she called me…” the ambassador trailed off. Aaron pulled onto their street, the trees full and blowing leaves onto the cars parked along the curbs. He had been here this morning as the sun rose, and now he was here to see it set. Once they were through the gate and parked at the front walkway, Aaron could feel the ambassador’s anxiety as she wrung her hands, preparing herself to have a conversation with her daughter. Aaron never wanted to be like this, if he ever had kids. To be fearless in the face of international terrorists and enemies of the state, but incapable of facing the real vulnerabilities of his own child.

She seemed to be finished talking, so Aaron got out and opened the door for her. As he held the door for her, the ambassador stood up straight and turned her attention to him.

“What do you think?” she asked him.

Aaron turned his head, thinking, and assessing the ambassador’s current emotional state. He took a moment to formulate his opinion, but found it easy to speak up once he had decided what his thoughts were.

“I think,” he started, “that she wants to be the kind of person she needed when she was six.” The ambassador gave him a look that bordered on the defensive, meaning Aaron had to quickly clarify what he meant. “Professionally, I mean.” Her stance loosened and she sighed through her mouth again. She didn’t agree or disagree with him, which Aaron saw as a good sign.

He closed the door behind her and got her luggage from the trunk. When they walked through the blue front door, Emily was waiting at the top of the stairs. Her hair was half-dry and she was dressed in a pair of running shorts and an oversized grey t-shirt. She was barefoot, leaning against the railing. Aaron couldn’t help himself from observing her, now that he knew this new information about her. There was compassion there, of course, but not in the way he would expect. He didn’t pity her; she was too competent and secure in herself to be pitied.

She stood there, anticipating her mother’s first move. Aaron didn’t want to linger, so he passed the luggage along and turned on his heel to leave. Before he got to the door, he looked over his shoulder. Emily was still standing there, watching as her mother ascended the stairs toward her, but then she looked up over her mother’s head and made direct eye contact with him.

Later, he would wonder if this was the first time he had ever been profiled. After years in the BAU, Aaron would quickly become used to the careful observation of his team. He, like everyone else in the department, was trained professionally in behavioral analysis. It would become one of his most finely honed skills, but in the early days, he was barely aware that it was even a skill one could hone.

Emily watched him and he returned her gaze. He felt inexplicably exposed in front of her. From the look on her face and the cross of her arms, he knew that she knew that her mother had just divulged something to him. She must have seen his expression and recognized that his perception of her had changed at some point during the day because the gaze she met him with was one of resigned acceptance. She shrugged and rolled her eyes, but then she smirked. He smirked back at her, inadvertently. They might have been barely acquainted before that moment, but Aaron knew that they could never be strangers after this.

He left through the front door and, as was his ritual, he looked up at the window bordered with ivy and partially obscured by oak leaves, and became painfully conscious of this newfound interest he held in the ambassador’s daughter.


End file.
